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Peter W. Galbraith sees no conflict in
Kurdish oil deals
13.11.2009
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November 13, 2009
Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. diplomat and longtime
adviser to ethnic Kurdish leaders in Iraq, is
defending himself against accusations of a conflict
of interest over a business deal he made with a
Norwegian oil firm.
Iraqi officials have criticized Galbraith for having
a financial stake in Kurdish oil because he served
as an unpaid adviser to the Kurdish regional
government while it was involved in negotiations
over the drafting of a new Iraqi Constitution. The
Kurds control parts of oil-rich northern Iraq, also
known as Kurdistan.
In an interview with NPR's All Things Considered,
Galbraith acknowledged having a financial
arrangement with DNO, a Norwegian oil company that
has a stake in a promising oil field in Kurdistan,
but denied any conflict of interest.
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Peter Galbraith, former State Department Official and
former U.S. ambassador to Croatia |
"When I was asked by
them to advise them on the constitutional
negotiations in 2005, they knew that I was being
paid by DNO and by, in fact, other clients,"
Galbraith told co-host Melissa Block. "They knew of
my business activities. They sought my advice
anyhow."
He added, "There is no conflict between the role and
help I provided to the Kurds on what was their
agenda, not my agenda, and the work I did helping to
create an oil industry in Kurdistan."
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Galbraith
received rights to a large stake in at least one
Kurdish oil field in 2004 after helping DNO
negotiate a lucrative drilling contract. Galbraith
told the paper that he maintained an "ongoing
business relationship" with the company throughout
the constitutional negotiations in 2005 and later.
Reidar Visser, a research fellow at the Norwegian
Institute of International Affairs, has been
following the developments since the Norwegian
newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv first reported the
business arrangement last month.
"That is new, the fact that he actually received
payment from a Norwegian company at the same time
that he was sitting in on key sessions related to
the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution, from which,
in fact,www.ekurd.netmany
Iraqi politicians were excluded," Visser told NPR's
Michele Kelemen. "But Galbraith participated, with
his ownership share, and that is quite scandalous,
certainly if you look at this from an Iraqi point of
view."
The draft constitution that Galbraith was helping
with included provisions that he and Kurdish
officials argue gives control of oil finds in
Kurdistan to Kurdish leaders rather than to the
central government in Baghdad.
Galbraith told NPR that he did not have an official
role in the drafting of the constitution and that he
was a private citizen at the time.
"I want to emphasize that I myself did not
participate in the negotiations," Galbraith said. "I
wasn't a negotiator. I provided advice to people who
knew I had business interests."
The oil field, which is in the Duhok region of
Kurdistan, has proven reserves of about 230 million
barrels, and The New York Times estimated that
Galbraith's stake could be worth more than $100
million.
Galbraith said that he could not provide any details
of his arrangement because of a confidentiality
agreement, but he disputed the estimate of its
value.
"I wished it were true," Galbraith said.
He did acknowledge a dispute over what he calls his
"business arrangement."
"There's an arbitration that's under way in London,"
he told NPR. "It's a confidential process. The first
round has been concluded, and now the arbitration is
looking at damages."
Galbraith, 58, son of the prominent 20th century
economist John Kenneth Galbraith, served for many
years on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, and from 1993 to 1998 as U.S. ambassador
to Croatia.
He has also been in the news recently because of his
role in Afghanistan. Peter Galbraith was fired in
September from a senior post at the United Nations
mission there after accusing his boss of ignoring
fraud in Afghanistan's recent troubled presidential
election.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
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